True Talent
In an alley thick with some kind of smoke, a girl with neatly bobbed black hair cut to her shoulders sneered. Her name was Lee Hui-ji. She was one of the three who had been humiliated by Park Jeong-ah at school earlier that day.
The girl, who had always been so submissive, had shown up today with a completely different look on her face, even daring to lecture Hui-ji and her clique. Normally, they would have wondered if she had eaten something spoiled and, out of the goodness of their hearts as her "friends," given her a thorough treatment. Of course, that treatment would have encompassed both physical and mental therapy.
But things had not gone according to Hui-ji's expectations. As if some miracle had occurred overnight, the girl who couldn't even meet her eyes was suddenly handling her and her friends with effortless ease. How would it feel if a squirrel or a stray cat you saw every day suddenly started beating up humans? Fear. It was pure fear.
When something you deemed completely harmless is no longer harmless, the comfort of familiarity vanishes, replaced by a dread born of the strange and the unknown. That terror had peaked when Park Jeong-ah sliced a mithril dagger in half with nothing but a tree branch. In that moment, Hui-ji had collapsed to the ground without even realizing it, desperately averting her eyes. She had even shed a few quiet tears, hoping no one would notice.
Trembling in fear before a mere orphan and acting so utterly pathetic—such a disgrace was unacceptable in Lee Hui-ji's book. It transcended simple embarrassment; it was an absolute, unforgivable humiliation! With a prominent city council member for a father and a renowned university professor for a mother, Hui-ji had never bowed her head to anyone in her life. Her pride was colossal.
Earlier, her mind had been too scrambled by the sheer absurdity of what she witnessed to even think about tracking Jeong-ah down. But not anymore. She wanted to find Park Jeong-ah right this instant, force her to her knees, and make her beg for mercy. She would squeeze every last tear of regret out of those insolent eyes. Driven by this burning desire, Hui-ji had come all this way, even gathering testimonies from other students to confirm that Jeong-ah had skipped school to head to a Capsule Room.
Yes, it's completely absurd. How dare a wretched thing like her...
To Lee Hui-ji, the people of this world were divided into strict, preordained ranks. Society was structured from top to bottom in a natural order, much like a pyramid. Within that hierarchy, even if she wasn't at the very peak, Hui-ji was undeniably part of the upper class. She had been born an aristocrat.
Park Jeong-ah, on the other hand, naturally belonged at the very bottom of the pyramid. A penniless orphan whose only saving grace was a decent face—which she didn't even know how to use properly. As a member of the upper class, Hui-ji felt a profound responsibility to educate and reform Park Jeong-ah. Just like the noblesse oblige of old, it was only natural for the superior to guide the inferior.
Yet, instead of showing gratitude for this guidance, the girl had dared to rebel and strike back. To Hui-ji, Jeong-ah's actions today were nothing short of an insurrection, a violent outrage that could not be overlooked. And so, she had come here to deliver judgment.
As she was steeling her resolve, a voice spoke up beside her.
"You're sure she went in there?"
Beside Hui-ji, a muscular girl exhaled a thick cloud of smoke and turned her head. Though she sat slouched, lazily puffing on mana-weed, she was not someone to be trifled with. After all, she was a student at Harman Academy, an elite institution reserved only for the most talented Awakened. Proving her status, she wore the black formal uniform exclusive to the academy's students.
"She'll be out soon. I checked earlier, and her capsule time was almost up."
"Ugh, I hope she hurries. Waiting around like this is so incredibly boring."
Even though their fathers were close, bringing this older girl along had required a significant favor on Hui-ji's part. Yet, she had gone to the trouble of recruiting a physical-type superhuman from the academy as both a display of power and an insurance policy. The bizarre, inexplicable martial prowess Jeong-ah had displayed earlier—which would have easily overwhelmed any ordinary Awakened—had made Hui-ji cautious. This girl was her strategic weapon.
No matter how much she's awakened, there's no way she can beat an academy student...
The girl shaking her leg beside her wasn't some half-baked Awakened like Hui-ji; she was someone who had already stepped into the realm of a true superhuman. As Hui-ji comforted herself with these thoughts, their target finally emerged.
"Is that her?"
Hui-ji nodded. With a heavy thud, the older girl bolted forward. By the time Hui-ji's eyes caught up with her rapid movement, she was already standing right in front of Park Jeong-ah, her lips curled into a smirk.
"Hey there."
I assessed the situation instantly. The unfamiliar face greeting me was one thing, but then a very familiar figure stepped out from behind her.
"Hey, Jeong-ah. Have fun playing your game?"
It was the girl who had lunged at me with a dagger earlier. Didn't she say her father was a city council member? If I recalled what Yujeong told me... her name was Lee Hui-ji. Yes, that was it.
A dry laugh escaped my lips at the sheer predictability of it all. She got scolded a little, so she went and brought an older sister to back her up? How childish, like a bunch of kids... Oh, wait. They were kids. Come to think of it, this was exactly the kind of thing a fourteen-year-old would do.
Taking my silence as fear, Hui-ji crossed her arms and spoke triumphantly.
"Kneel and beg right now, and maybe I'll let you off easy."
"Yeah, do what Hui-ji says. You're an Awakened too, right? Awakened should get along. You know your unni here is an academy student?"
How on earth was this "getting along"? I had expected as much, but birds of a feather really did flock together. And that wasn't the only thing testing my patience. Despite her large build, her face was still childishly young. She looked only a few years older than me, which meant she was also a minor, right? Yet here she was, puffing away on a cigarette. Looking at the thick smoke filling the alley and the butts littered all over the ground, my brow furrowed, and the words slipped out of my mouth naturally.
"Who said you could smoke?"
"So tiring, so exhausting... Dealing with people is the absolute worst."
Cheon Se-rin groaned as she threw her coat over her shoulders. Glancing out the window, she saw the sun was already dipping below the horizon. It was 6:00 PM. She had barely done anything, yet the day was already gone. And today was supposed to be a lecture-free day! Her plan to wrap things up early, head home around two or three, and enjoy some blissful free time had been completely ruined. Scowling, Se-rin walked out of the building.
The teachings of the predecessors are passed down to future generations through education.
As she walked, the inscription carved into the stone monument standing proudly on the grounds caught her eye. It was a cringeworthy phrase she could never quite get used to, no matter how many times she saw it. Staring at the monument erected by Harman, the academy's founder, and feeling nothing but second-hand embarrassment, Se-rin was reminded once again that being an educator wasn't a particularly good fit for her.
"Honestly, hunting monsters in the rifts was much easier."
It was a thought she had harbored ever since transitioning from a 1st Generation Awakened to a professor, but lately, she felt it more acutely than ever. The reason, as always, was people. Se-rin gritted her teeth as she thought of the culprits who had delayed her departure.
"Those damn geezers..."
By "geezers," she meant the elderly power-trippers who had secured fancy titles like "committee chairman" simply because they had helped establish the academy. In short, the elders. They constantly harassed Se-rin, nitpicking over the most trivial matters, and today had been no different.
Recommendation, my foot... I have to actually find someone worth recommending before I can write a damn letter.
Every year, professors at Harman Academy were granted a single Recommendation Letter that guaranteed admission for one student. However, Se-rin had never used hers once since becoming a professor, and the elders were now pressuring her, calling it a dereliction of duty. What annoyed her most was that, technically, they weren't entirely wrong. Discovering raw, talented gems and nurturing them was indeed a professor's responsibility.
As if they aren't just trying to get their own connections admitted. Hypocrites...
Their reason for obsessing over her recommendation letter was simple: they wanted to use it as political leverage. If she surrendered the authority of her unused letter, they would undoubtedly use it to admit the child of some corporate chairman or the granddaughter of a member of parliament they wanted to curry favor with. It was painfully obvious. That was why Se-rin refused to hand over her recommendation rights, despite the elders' relentless pressure. She hadn't become a professor out of a burning passion for teaching, but as an educator, she drew the line at such corruption. As a consequence, she had been held hostage all afternoon. The old fogies had surprisingly high stamina, droning on for hours while she let their words go in one ear and out the other.
"If this were the old days, I would've flipped the table on them..."
"You've really softened up, Cheon Se-rin," she muttered to herself with a self-deprecating chuckle. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out a familiar long cigarette. She intended to have a quick smoke before heading home. But just as she stepped into a quiet alley and was about to light the tip, her brow furrowed.
A mana fluctuation?
Something registered in her sensory perception. It was an incredibly familiar sensation—someone nearby was channeling mana. Was there a fight breaking out between superhumans? Surely no one was foolish enough to start a brawl right on the academy's doorstep. Deciding it was worth investigating, Se-rin kept the cigarette between her lips and walked toward the source of the fluctuation. But when she saw the scene unfolding before her, the cigarette slipped from her mouth.
...Well, look at this.
In the alley, a small girl with fluttering blonde hair was thoroughly thrashing a superhuman twice her size.